Richard Kuklinski
- This article is about a mafia hitman. For the Polish defector, see Ryszard Kukliński
Richard Kuklinski (April 11, 1935 – March 5, 2006) was a convicted murderer who claimed to be a notorious hit man known as "The Iceman" who was connected to the Gambino crime family. He was the older brother of Joseph Kuklinski.
Early life
Kuklinski was born in Jersey City, New Jersey in a low income housing project. His father was a brakeman for the railroad and also an alcoholic who regularly came home drunk and beat Kuklinski and his mother. His mother, a worker in a meat packing factory, was also very abusive towards Richard, beating him with broomsticks. Later in life, Kuklinski claimed that his father killed his older brother Florian and that it was covered up as an accident. Kuklinski would claim that it was during these beatings that he first began to feel the "nothingness" that occurred when he committed murder.
After periods of abuse, Kuklinski began to brutally torture and kill neighborhood animals, one of the warning signs of psychopathy in children. He would later claim to derive no satisfaction from doing so; rather, it was simply a method to explore his curiosity in the lack of empathy he felt.
Kuklinski's father abandoned the family when Richard was 16 leaving him to fend for himself. He was bullied by street gangs at a young age. Kuklinski emerged from his house with a clothes line stick and beat six boys close to death who were waiting to attack him. At this point Kuklinski turned from victim to attacker. Richard stated this was the first time in his life that he felt in control and in power. At the age of 18, a man in a bar insulted Richard in front of people, which infuriated Richard. When he left the bar, he noticed the man sitting in his car asleep. Richard got some gasoline and a flame and threw them in with the man. He said he could hear the man screaming as he rounded the corner. At the age of 21, he got into a fight at a bar and beat a man with a pool stick. The next day, the man died as a result of the injuries he sustained. Kuklinski later stated that while he felt remorse for the murder and was sorry he had committed it, he also felt empowered.
Association with the Gambinos and DeMeo
When he was older, he met a mobster named Roy DeMeo, who would later on become a made member of the Gambino crime family. Kuklinski started out doing robberies and other chores for the family, but soon his talent for killing was realized. He stood out amongst his associates, standing over 6 ft 4 in(193 cm) without shoes and weighing close to 300 lb (135 kg).
Over the next thirty years, according to Kuklinski, he killed regularly. Although an exact number has never been settled upon by authorities, Kuklinski himself at various times had claimed to have killed 33, 100 and possibly more than 200 individuals.
Despite Kuklinski's claims that he was a frequent killer for DeMeo, none of DeMeo's crew members that later became witnesses for the government claimed that Kuklinski was involved in the murders they committed. Surveillance photos only caught Kuklinski visiting DeMeo's main headquarters, the Gemini Lounge, on one occasion. That visit was apparently to purchase a handgun from the Brooklyn crew. Kuklinski once claimed to have been responsible for the 1983 murder of Roy DeMeo, although all available evidence and testimony points to the murderers being fellow DeMeo crew associates Joseph Testa and Anthony Senter as well as DeMeo's supervisor in the Gambino family, Anthony Gaggi (see [1]).
At the same time he was allegedly a career hit man, Kuklinski met and married a woman and fathered children. His children never had any idea that their father was a hit man, instead believing, like Kuklinski's neighbors, that he was a successful businessman.
Initially nicknamed "The Polack" by his Italian associates because of his Polish heritage, Kuklinski earned the nickname "Iceman" following his experiments with disguising the time of death of his victims by freezing their corpses. Kuklinski himself claims that he used a Mister Softee ice cream truck for this purpose, although the FBI doubts the veracity of this claim. Later on, he told Philip Carlo that he got the idea from another hitman, who drove a Mister Softee truck to appear inconspicuous. Kuklinski's method was uncovered by the authorities when once, Kuklinski failed to let one of his victims properly thaw before disposing of the body, and the coroner found chunks of ice in the corpse's heart.
State and Federal manhunt
When the authorities finally caught up with Kuklinski in 1986, they based their case almost entirely on the testimony of an undercover agent. New Jersey State Police detective Pat Kane started the case 6 years prior to the arrest and the investigation involved a joint operation with the NJ Attorney General's office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Special Agent Dominick Polifrone had the undercover experience specializing in Mafia cases. The NJ State Police and the ATF began a joint operation. Det. Kane turned a close friend of Kuklinski who introduced the undercover agent to the killer. The ATF agent had acted like he wanted to hire Kuklinski for a hit and recorded him speaking in detail about how he would do it. When state police and federal agents went to arrest Kuklinski they blocked off his street, and it took multiple officers to bring him down. Kuklinski was sentenced to two life sentences in 1988, he would have become eligible for parole in 2046, at which time he would have been 111 years old.
Final years
During his incarceration Kuklinski, a pathological liar, granted interviews to prosecutor's, psychiatrists, criminologists, writers, and television producers filled with self-aggrandizing lies about his criminal career, upbringing, and personal life. Two documentaries, featuring an interview of Kuklinski by Dr. Park Dietz—most well-known for his interviews with and analysis of Jeffrey Dahmer—aired on HBO after interviews in 1991 and 2001. Philip Carlo also wrote a book in 2006 entitled The Ice Man which has been widely discredited.
In one interview, Kuklinski claimed that the prospect of killing a woman or a child disgusted him, although he would be willing to do anything asked of him to a man. He also confessed that once he had wanted to use a crossbow to carry out a hit but did not want to use the method without having "tested" it first. While driving his car, he picked a man at random to stop and ask for directions. Kuklinski told the HBO interviewer that when the man bent forward, he shot him in the forehead with the crossbow and stated "it went half-way into his head."
Kuklinski later stated that only once had he felt repulsed in the commission of a crime. He once kidnapped one of his victims, and rather than conventionally murder him, tied him up so tightly that the ropes drew blood. He then left the man in a cave in the wilderness where he was eaten alive by rats that were attracted by the smell of blood. Kuklinski filmed the man's death, and claimed that upon viewing it, he felt disgusted for the first and only time in regard to a murder he had committed. According to Philip Carlo's book "Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer" this method of feeding live victims to rats was used multiple times by Kuklinski. It was common when the victim was required to "suffer." Kuklinski claimed to video tape the deaths for whoever wanted the hit. Police however, have never found any of the videos.
Kuklinski died of unknown causes at 1:15 AM on March 5, 2006, in Trenton, New Jersey at the age of 70. He was in a secure wing at St. Francis Medical Center. Although authorities say they believe he died of natural causes, the timing of his death is considered suspicious by author Philip Carlo, since he was scheduled to testify against former Gambino crime family underboss Sammy Gravano. His testimony was to include that he had killed a New Jersey police officer in the 1980s on Gravano's orders. (It should be noted, however, that currently the 60 year old Gravano is serving a 19 year prison sentence for running an Ecstasy distribution ring in Arizona.) Kuklinski also stated to family members that he thought "they" were poisoning him. A few days after Kuklinski's death, prosecutors dropped all charges against Gravano saying that without the hit man's testimony they had insufficient evidence to continue.
Involvement with Jimmy Hoffa disappearance
In April of 2006, news reports surfaced that Kuklinski had confessed to author Philip Carlo that he was part of a group of five men who kidnapped and murdered famed union boss Jimmy Hoffa. [2] However, during the HBO interview he disclaimed all knowledge of Hoffa's fate. Kuklinski claimed that he'd only heard rumors, specifically, that Hoffa had been killed, placed into a car which was junked, and shipped overseas. Yet, in The Ice Man he says he stabbed Hoffa in the back of the head with a knife, put him in a barrel, and buried him in a junkyard. He also says that they later had to retrieve the barrel, put it in a car which was junked, and then shipped overseas.
In popular culture
- The U.S. metal band Macabre recorded a song about Kuklinski, titled "The Iceman"; it can be found on the Murder Metal album.
- The hardcore punk band Fatal Riot recorded a song about Kuklinski, titled "Kuklinski".
- The 2006 video game Hitman: Blood Money featured a mission that involved a counter-assassination; one of the mission's targets was called Raymond Kulinsky, an obvious reference to the man himself.
- On "Leave Me Alone, Pt. 2" from his 2004 album Purple Haze, rapper Cam'ron references Kuklinski. Although Cam'ron incorrectly refers to him as Michael instead of Richard, his use of the alias "The Iceman" clarifies his intent:
- The Montel Williams Show spent an entire episode with Kuklinski's family talking about the man they considered a somewhat normal family member.
- Criminal Minds featured an episode,in season one entitled "Natural Born Killer", which involved a mafia hitman who was supposed to have killed hundreds of people, and one method he used involved the videotaping of a bound man being eaten alive by rats, which is supposedly one method used by Kuklinski.